IPL is once again the news in this cricket hungry nation. What with the COVID-19 pandemic depriving the viewers of their regular dose of cricket, every little bit of cricket related news finds traction. So, even something like the sponsorship for the IPL season catches the eye and excites the tweeple. This year it will not be Vivo, but Dream11 sponsoring the league event. Turns out there is more to this sponsorship than meets the eye.
Beating other contenders, Dream11 has bagged the bid for the IPL title sponsorship at Rs. 222 crores.
There were several others with their hat in the ring.
Dream11 is a fantasy sports platform that lets users play fantasy cricket as well as football, kabaddi, hockey and basketball.
Users are invited to create their ‘dream teams’ and offered prizes for participating in contests.
This deal ensures that people who had never even heard of this platform will now be a lot likelier to use it.
Rs 222 crores --- clearly the big league!
Thought the company claims that this is a game of skill many feel that this is just gambling in another garb.
The BCCI is well known as the richest cricket board in the world. Clearly the BCCI will have no trouble maintaining that title.
In 2017, a High Court petition challenged the operations of Dream11 since gambling is illegal in India.
Though the courts held the company to be a legal entity, the company operates in the regulatory ‘grey area’ say experts
People think it is clever of Dream11 to bag the sponsorship and claim legitimacy by virtue of the IPL sponsorship.
There are some who feel that they will be able to make money off Dream11.
There are many who feel that the company itself is shady; its antecedents even more so.
The sponsorship of the previous sponsor Vivo ended because of the company’s Chinese antecedents.
Turns out Dream11 has a major chunk of investment from the Chinese MNC Tencent.
Strangely there has been no backlash against Dream11 or the BCCI or IPL or anyone endorsing the company.
Though Dream11 has been trending, there seem to be no antinational accusations being hurled around. There have been no calls for a boycott of the IPL or the new IPL sponsor. So is the term antinational is reserved for people with a certain political/ideological leaning only?
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